


dorks at the spotlight

by jenomeow



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Dorks in Love, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun & Na Jaemin Are Siblings, M/M, OT7 NCT Dream, Popularity, and everyone worships them, donghyuck sings, jaemin plays soccer, the ot7 are the Popular Bois
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21765448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenomeow/pseuds/jenomeow
Summary: Oh God, everyone talks about it, haven’t you heard? The captain of the soccer team and the guy with a voice of an angel are dating!
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin, Mark Lee/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 11
Kudos: 196
Collections: DreamXmas 2019





	dorks at the spotlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [revered](https://archiveofourown.org/users/revered/gifts).



> hey, i hope you like this little thing i wrote for you because i certainly loved it !!! your prompts were amazing and believe me when i say it took me more time to decide what to write than to write the fic itself lol
> 
> thank you to the beta who helped me with this fic as well. i didn't know if we could ask for help to people outside the fest, so i settled for the betas of this exchange, and what a good decision i made, you did an amazing job, thanks bub!
> 
> i had a loooot of fun working on this tbh so pls enjoy ♥

In high school, popularity and reputation is, sadly, something as important as your grades. Na Jaemin knows that; it was only his first year and he was already the most popular boy in the school. He didn’t even try, he had a good enough face, his smile was pretty, was sociable and he was part of the soccer team. Oh, and he was Jung Jaehyun's stepbrother, someone known and loved by everyone but Jaemin doesn’t talk about that much.

It could have been overwhelming if it weren’t for his friends— especially Donghyuck, the boy he had known since he had memory, the one who was always by his side… and, of course, Jeno, who Jaemin loved a lot too, and who took a seat in front of him and Hyuck and sighed with a scowl. Now, that was weird.

Jaemin had been feeding Donghyuck as if he couldn't do it himself. He could, obviously, but he preferred when Jaemin did it.

"You two are dating," Jeno said, monotonous.

The two boys looked at their friend, blinking almost at the same time, making Jeno sigh harder. Why were they like that? They really didn't realize? How was that possible?

"No, we aren't," Jaemin shook his head, going back to his food.

"Yes, you are," Jeno insisted.

"Jeno, we aren't dating," Donghyuck said. "If we were dating we would know it, and we wouldn't deny it, but here we are, sure that we are not dating."

"Yeah, we're just friends. Like you and me and you and Hyuck." 

Jeno made a disgusted face before directing his attention back to his tray of food. His friends really were stupid like that huh.

"Gosh, no. I really hope not, I don't want to be your boyfriend or Donghyuck's boyfriend." 

The other two giggled and resumed feeding each other again. It was an interesting comment, one whose only purpose was to make them realize, and even if they were acting as if it was nothing, the truth was that a little doubt was planted into their minds thanks to Jeno.

Donghyuck gulped. Were they really dating? Jeno wouldn't lie about something like that, but then again the last time he checked he was as single as he could be. They couldn't be dating without them knowing, that was stupid… right?

Jaemin, on his side, was panicking. Was it that evident he liked Donghyuck? Why did Jeno say that as if it was nothing? He didn't even say it as a question. But it couldn't be that it was obvious how in love he was with Donghyuck, because then Jeno wouldn't have said anything, not wanting to expose his friend. So no one there knew about his feelings but apparently they acted like a couple.

The rest of the breakfast was spent in silence and Jeno almost regretted saying anything. Almost.

…

As a boy in his first year of high school, Lee Donghyuck took his friends' opinions very seriously, and he preferred to go to them and ask for advice rather than endure the jokes his mom would make ever since he told her he may have a tiny little insignificant crush on his best friend, Na Jaemin.

The problem was, who should he ask? Jaemin wasn't an option, obviously; Jeno would be helpful but he would look Hyuck dead in the eye and tell him something like "I knew you liked him, you dumbass" and he would rather skip that, thank you. Besides, what did Jeno actually know about crushes? The same as Donghyuck, probably.

Donghyuck didn't have any other friends, if he was being brutally honest, or that was what he thought until one day when he was back from school he saw Mark Lee, his lifelong neighbor, holding hands with his boyfriend Yukhei.

Oh how could he forgot about Mark? He was his friend even before Jaemin, and okay, he was awkward and clumsy, but he got himself a handsome foreign boyfriend so he should know a thing or two, right? _And_ , Mark was part of the group of friends they had in school, which consisted of him, Jaemin, Jeno and Hyuck. Mark was the perfect candidate to be asked these kinds of questions.

"Do you think Jaemin and I are dating?" was what he asked. Mark looked at him with big, surprised eyes and he slowly put his hamburger back down on his tray.

They were in a mall close to their homes because Donghyuck dragged Mark to eat with him one evening after school. Usually, Mark was super busy with activities and clubs, but that day Donghyuck was quick enough to go to him before Yukhei could, winning Mark's attention for the day.

“Uh,” Mark said, stupidly. “I don’t know… Are you?”

“I’m pretty sure we aren’t.”

“Then no. I don’t think you guys are dating,” he looked at Donghyuck for a couple of seconds. “But do you wanna? Do you wanna date Jaemin?”

That was a hard question. Jaemin would be the perfect boyfriend, no doubt. He was caring and kind, he took the other’s feelings into consideration all the time. Jaemin gave the best hugs and liked to kiss the cheeks of the people he loved, he always made sure that everyone knew they were loved and appreciated. Anyone could be asked and they would answer that yes, Na Jaemin was the perfect boyfriend. But that wasn’t what Mark asked Donghyuck.

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind.” At Mark’s pointed glare, he sighed, nodding. There was no use in trying to hide the truth. “Yeah, I’d love to date Jaemin or whatever.”

Mark’s grin was bright and cheery.

“Then go for it, Donghyuck.”

…

Going for it wasn’t needed, since it went for Donghyuck instead.

“I talked with this boy from China who is new in town and he said I was annoying as fuck for talking with that kind of familiarity to strangers, but he also said it seemed as if I was in love with you.”

Hearing those words weren’t something Donghyuck was expecting when one day after his talk with Mark he opened the door, Jaemin’s message informing he would drop by still on his phone’s screen. He must have sent it two houses before Hyuck’s.

“I see. He said that, right?” Jaemin nodded and Hyuck smiled. “And are you in love with me?”

“Fuck, yes. I think I am.”

“Okay. Let’s date, I guess, since I also think I like you more than a friend.”

How serious could it be when two 15 year old teenagers dated, anyway?

…

Turns out, it could be very serious. Three years from the moment they decided to start dating and things weren’t even close to an end.

Jaemin was now the captain of the soccer team and Donghyuck the main vocalist of the school’s singing group. Jeno was the student council president, Mark was the high school’s It Boy, and they had three new additions to their group: Renjun, the Chinese boy Jaemin talked to about his feelings years ago, a famous artist on Instagram and hence also in real life, and Jisung and Chenle, two boys younger than them. Jisung was the ace of the dance team and Chenle was famous on YouTube thanks to his covers of his favorite songs.

Their names were always in other people’s mouths. They were the center of attention everywhere they went, and it was intimidating, they knew. The seven of them weren’t seen talking to anyone outside their tight circle, and some of them had resting faces with expressions that were a bit… too serious. Jeno, tall and beefy, was seen as the biggest bad boy ever, with his hostile scowl. Renjun’s smirk was seen as sarcastic and Mark was seen as someone too perfect to be approached, just to mention some examples of what the other students said about the seven popular boys.

The truth behind all that was that Jeno tended to forget his glasses at home so he had to squint to see, Renjun was shy and the best smile he could offer to other people was something akin to a smirk, and Mark really was too perfect but it wasn’t his fault people were scared of perfection. He was friendly.

Jaemin didn’t usually pay attention to what they said, until one day he heard some boys talking about how he was never seen with a girl— not in a romantic way, at least. “Three years here and he hasn’t had a girlfriend when every girl in this high school is crazy for him? What a narcissist,” were the exact words, making the boy that accompanied him laugh loudly, but when they noticed him right beside them in the line to get food from the cafeteria, they panicked, murmured quick apologies, and ran away from there. Jaemin didn’t mind the insult, what made him think was the girlfriend part; why would he want to have a girlfriend when he was gay and in love with his boyfriend of three years?

Then, the realisation: Did people actually know about him and Hyuck?

Suddenly all those love letters he and his boyfriend received on Valentine’s Day made sense. They weren’t being insensitive like they initially had thought; they really didn’t know both Donghyuck and Jaemin were in a relationship with each other.

Gasping, he looked at the table were his friends waited for him, chatting among themselves. Did they know about him and Donghyuck?

…

“Jaemin, you literally made out with Hyuck the other day. I was there. You two just ignored me,” Renjun deadpanned.

Jaemin looked in Jeno’s direction, and he only shrugged.

“Hyuck sure likes telling the people he appreciates he loves them, but he only says that to you with those puppy eyes. I guessed you two were dating a long time ago,” was his answer.

Sighing, he felt at peace, knowing the people who were the closest to him knew about his relationship. Oh, how silly of him to think that when he asked only two of his five friends.

…

“Hyung—! What the fuck,” Jisung exclaimed.

Donghyuck and Jaemin separated instantly, and the younger climbed down off of his boyfriend’s lap, and sitting beside him, embarrassed.

That day was videogames day, and it was at Donghyuck’s house. As always, Jaemin arrived one hour earlier to spend some time alone with his boyfriend, and like the horny teenager boys they were they ended up in Hyuck’s room making out, not expecting Jisung to arrive half an hour earlier, they also did not expect Hyuck’s mother letting the boy in without announcing his presence, so he found his friends very busy smacking the other’s lips with his own.

“Jisung,” Jaemin said, cheeks red. “Hey, you’re here early.”

“Hyung what the fuck you and Hyuck— you were kissing what the hell.”

Donghyuck sighed.

“Yeah, that’s something you do when you’re in a relationship with someone, Jisung. What are you? Two?”

“... You two are in a relationship?”

The next half hour was spent explaining things to Jisung, not because he couldn’t accept that his friends were dating, but rather because he wanted to know everything about it: how, when, why. He loved gossip.

“Actually, I don't know why it surprised me that much,” Jisung told them. “No, I know, I saw you making out, that’s like, traumatic. But what I mean is, it was kinda obvious you like each other, just… One would think that when you two in particular are in a relationship you’d latch onto your partner every second of the day, but at most you hold hands in public. Even I hold hands with Mark, and he has a boyfriend. I thought you were just friends. To be this clingy, you sure as hell don’t even touch each other outside the house.”

Donghyuck was about to roll his eyes when he realized it was true. Damn, he even kissed Renjun all over the face in the middle of the cafeteria but with Jaemin the most he did was hold hands under the table. Gosh, people would start thinking he was dating Renjun. Nothing wrong with that, but he had a boyfriend, he didn’t want other people thinking he was dating someone who was not Jaemin and only Jaemin.

So it became their mission to show everyone their love.

…

“Chenle, Jaemin and I are dating.”

Chenle looked up from his book, confused. They were at the school’s library studying, but Donghyuck had been busy thinking how to break the news to his friend, not wanting to shock him like Jisung. At the end, he throw all his ideas away and just said it.

“Okay,” Chenle responded, but it sounded as confused as his expression showed.

“I know it might be a surprise—”

“It’s not.”

“But we are the same as ever—”

“Hyung, I’ve known you two are gay since the day we met. You two literally introduced yourselves as the Gay Kings of the high school.”

“We don’t want you to treat us differently—”

“I kinda supposed you were dating. Y’all give those married for 35 years vibes.”

“We just wanted to let you know, as all of our friends know now.”

“Thanks, hyung, I appreciate the thought,” Chenle sighed.

Donghyuck beamed. He was such a good hyung.

…

“That Hyuck kid spends a lot of time here, don’t you think so?” Jaehyun asked, uninterested, just to make small chat. Jaemin nodded.

“You’ve known Hyuck since I was eight, Jaehyun. Stop calling him ‘that Hyuck kid’.”

Donghyuck had been there all the sunday morning until he had to go to have lunch at his grandma’s with the rest of his family. Jaehyun, Jaemin’s stepbrother, came back from a couple of years away as a foreign exchange student in the USA, China, and then Thailand, so even though all of his family knew about his relationship with Hyuck no one ever told Jaehyun, who wasn’t there when it happened. It was just so normal, so common and natural to have Hyuck around and in a relationship with their son that Jaemin’s parents forgot to tell Jaehyun, and Jaemin didn’t really have the closest relationship with his brother to think in telling him when he more often than not forgot he didn’t know.

It slipped out of everyone’s minds, that’s it. But with that comment Jaemin realized it.

“Hyuck and I are dating,” he said after a while. Jaehyun looked at him with raised eyebrows. “We’ve been together for almost four years.”

“I didn’t know.”

“No one told you, it’s okay.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.”

They sat there in silence, watching the TV but without paying that much attention. It was so awkward Jaemin even feared for a second that Jaehyun didn’t support his relationship, but soon his brother was chuckling softly and staring at him with soft, proud eyes.

“Look at you having a stable relationship, huh,” he teased, smiling. “Tell me about him.”

Jaemin’s expression relaxed, and he excitedly began to tell his brother about his story with his boyfriend.

...

The day Na Jaemin and Lee Donghyuck entered the cafeteria holding hands, no one reacted. It was an everyday thing to see the popular boys being affectionate with each other.

The day Donghyuck kissed Jaemin after winning the final game of the session, however, everyone was screaming and shocked. Screaming because the school’s team won, and shocked because why the fuck were those two locking lips in the middle of the court in front of everyone?

Jaemin circled his boyfriend’s waist with his arm, laughing at the complaints Donghyuck let out for having Jaemin’s sweat all over him, but without trying to separate from his embrace.

That was the final match of the session, the last game Jaemin would play as the captain before graduation, and of course all of his friends were there. Mark had Yukhei beside him, Jeno and Renjun smiled like crazy holding the banner they made for the occasion, and Jisung and Chenle could be heard a mile away, screaming words of encouragement to Jaemin and the team. And then there was Hyuck. Beautiful, ethereal Hyuck, who had light makeup and the biggest smile on, who looked precious in Jaemin’s hoodie, who kissed him good luck and giggled when Jaemin told him all of his goals would be dedicated to him.

In the last second, Jaemin scored the goal that made the team win and soon the place was full of excited screams and hugs. Hyuck jumped to the court with the rest of the people in there, wanting to celebrate and congratulate the players. A lot of people congratulated Jaemin, and a lot more were waiting their turn to do so, but he searched for only one person in the agitated crowd. When he found him, the smile he gave could put the sun to shame.

Donghyuck ran to his boyfriend, who was sweating and dirty with soil, but he thought he had never seen Jaemin look this handsome before. He crashed into his chest, feeling more than hearing the joyful laugh the other let out. Hyuck suddenly wanted to laugh as well, glad to see his boyfriend that happy.

“Babe, Jaemin, you won!”

“I know! Oh God, Hyuck, we won,” he gaped, making the other laugh cutely at how handsome his boyfriend looked, and Jaemin forgot how to breathe for a second, caught in Donghyuck’s pretty features, the eyes that seemed to smile on its own, the tone of his skin, the love in his gaze. Everything about Donghyuck made Jaemin breathless.

“You did amazing out there, captain,” Hyuck teased, but tilted his head at Jaemin’s lack of reaction. He was only staring at Donghyuck fondly. “What?”

“Nothing, I just won the finals so I want to stare at my pretty boyfriend as the prize.”

“Gosh, you’re so embarrassing,” was Donghyuck’s response, but he leaned and kissed him, both of them smiling at the collective gasp the people around them left.

And that was how everyone found out the most popular boys at school were dating each other.

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/jenosglow)


End file.
